Chrome Hounds
by Unlimited Blade Works
Summary: The world went to hell a long time ago, that much was certain. To combat the rising crime rate Butei were created, literal child soldiers meant to steam the tide of crime and corruption. When there are no choices left perhaps even a man that sees himself as nothing but a killer can be something more. The time to choose has come. Hunt Like a Pack. Or Die Like A Dog.


**Chrome Hounds**

**Chapter One: Enter Uzumaki Naruto!**

**Authors Note-**

Yo.

So at the moment I'm more or less just playing with idea's and posting them, like that Naruto X Game Of Thrones Crossover I posted awhile back, I really should read the reviews for that at some point, meh I'll get around to it eventually I'm sure.

I've got a chapter for Heavens Feel, Full Contact and Wrought Iron Hero more than half finished so I should really get onto that but I just haven't found the motivation yet. Besides them I've got a fair few pages for Fallen Sky's and a Naruto X Mass Effect Crossover I've been experimenting with for awhile.

No idea when I'll post something next for the most part I'm just happy exploring my idea's and posting a few at the moment, I'm sure this is pissing more than a few of you off but I'm just going to have to ask you to be pacient please.

Now Please Enjoy!

**Story Start-**

The world had gone to shit, that much anyone could tell you.

After all the world had gotten that bad that it was now socially acceptable for Children to be trained as Butei, armed detectives, to combat the rising crime rate. It was acceptable for Children to be given advanced weapons and hand to hand combat training normally reserved for the Police, Army or even, in some cases, The Special Forces.

Then it was considered okay for those same Children to be sent out into the world and accept jobs to help combat the crime rate, or really anything at all, turning them more into minor mercenaries than they were detectives all things considered.

Not many people seemed to think about what happened to Butei when they graduated, but in essence it was simple. The ones that went to work in the civilian sector were usually the lucky ones. Getting jobs to do things like drive ambulances, work as investigative reporters, become security consultants and the like. Others went into the Police Force and still more were snapped up the Army, The Governments, turned into things like Armed Prosecutors, and Mercenary Company's. Very few Butei remained Butei after Graduation since there were so many other offers on the table that paid better and being trained in Butei Academy gave them a healthy taste of things like Mercenary work.

One really had to wonder about how the world ended up like this. Where something like Butei were considered to be acceptable in the over all state of affairs.

Essentially turning thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, into what effectively amounted to child soldiers.

Some took to it well, others...not so much.

But in the end that was the state of the world and no amount of grumbling was going to change it, that was the reality that had to be lived with.

These day's it was a simple fact of life.

There were no more Heroes.

**XXX**

Uzumaki Naruto liked to think of himself as a relatively normal man, well as relatively normal as anyone in Butai could possibly be, which come to think of it really wasn't that normal at all. The seventeen year old found himself at that moment hiding inside of a broom cupboard waiting for the guard outside to turn around. A combat knife was gripped in his right hand it was a simple weapon, a single sharp edge that was clearly well cared for while the back was serrated. The blond himself was covered in a mixture of camouflage colours, mostly dark greys, with black boots that led up to a torso covered by a Kevlar vest with another knife on his left shoulder a pistol, a Colt M45A1, in a holster on his thigh, the gun clearly outfitted with a suppressor. His balaclava was making him a little hot but that was a small price to pay for staying anonymous.

This operation was completely off the books after all, no one was ever supposed to know it was conducted, let alone that it was a Butei that conducted it. Naruto had to hold in a bitter chuckle at the hypocrisy of it all, Butei Law, Article Nine: Under No Circumstances Is A Butei To Take A Life. That was the code they were taught, that was what they were told to believe in, along with another whole pile of horseshit and here he was, on orders from the Butei Academy no less, to eliminate every person inside of this little people smuggling operation.

It was enough to make the blond want to vomit at the blatant disregard for their own laws and code of ethics.

After all why would a place like the Butei Academy, if they really followed those codes like they claimed, allow the Black Operations Program to exist? Black Operations was an extremely specialised part of the Assault Course that was invitation only, hell the very program didn't even exist on the books and they didn't answer to anyone besides The Director and fuck only knew who that really was. Naruto shook the thoughts off he had a job to do after all, he could dwell on the rampant hypocrisy of Butei and The Academy when he was done.

Besides the corpse in the cupboard with him was starting to get a little to much blood on his boots.

With the slightest of pushes the blond haired assassin slowly opened the door and closed it just as silently, the guard before him had his back turned. Five swift steps was all it took to close the distance. Naruto's left hand whipped up covering the man's mouth and pulling him back, knocking the Yakuza off balance as he did so, the combat knife entered the man's throat in the next second silencing the yell trying to come out from behind his hand and ending the man's life almost instantly. The blond dragged the body back to his former cupboard before hiding it away like he had done with the previous victim.

These guys didn't have any skill in hand to hand combat at all to speak of, unlike Naruto himself. Due to most of his Black Operations having to be as silent as possible the blond had become very efficient at staying as quiet as possible while disposing of his enemies with nothing but his knife of bare hands, it very rarely got to the point he even had to draw a gun these days.

Unlike many of the Butei of the Assault Course Naruto's hand to hand combat system didn't have a fancy name, like his mother and father before him he simply called it CQC, Close Quarters Combat. It was an efficient system that mixed stealth, hand to hand combat, knife work, close range gun work and even non-lethal takedowns. Then again it wasn't like it hadn't been refined over long years, Hashirama-Jiji and Madara-Jiji came up with it years ago then it spread down the line to the Mercenary Organisation that they had created, Konoha it was called.

As time went on the techniques were further refined and more were added and removed until CQC became what it was now. The people to train Naruto had been what could be called the direct inheritors of the original style, his mother Uzumaki Kushina and his father Namikaze Minato. His mother was the daughter of Hashirama-Jiji and Mito-Obaa-Chan. While his father had learned it directly from Jiraiya, who had been trained by Hiruzen-Jiji who had been taught the style directly by Hashirama-Jiji. All things considered it was fare to say that Naruto had probably inherited the best parts of the combat system, not anything like the cookie cutter imitations of the style he'd seen since.

Hell it could even be argued that the whole reason he was even in Butai Academy was because of CQC. His mother, much like her own mother and father, and his father were both members of Konoha and as such rather well known Mercenaries in their own right. Like both of them Naruto had been groomed to take up the family business at some point down the line, but he wasn't content to wait especially after proving he could take down active Konoha Operatives with nothing but CQC. Naruto had wanted in and the earlier the better as far as he was concerned. His mother had seen things differently and after their seventh, or was it the eighth? Naruto could never remember, argument on the subject inside of a week Kushina had, seemingly, finally caved and allowed her son to partake in Konoha Operations.

Minato had the sense to stay the hell out of the fight, strong he was but he was in no way stupid enough to walk into that particular minefield.

That night she had him sign a form, telling Naruto that it was a standard agreement that involved things like signing for insurance purposes and the like. Over joyed by the seemingly caving resolve of his mother Naruto had signed the documents, all of them, without reading them first, a mistake. Since the next morning a smiling Uzumaki Kushina woke him up at four am and 'kindly' informed her son that his bus to Butei Academy left in one hour and he should get ready.

He had been ticked! Bamboozled! It was Fraudulent Advertising! Entrapment! And many other words that were synonymous with those things that he couldn't think of right then.

Of course these facts meant nothing to his mother that simply informed him that he'd signed the papers and now it was time to leave. Naruto had decided to be stubborn and considering how well he'd done less than a week before against active Konoha Operatives told his mother to make him go, that had been another mistake. The last thing that Naruto remembered as he assumed the CQC stance was a flash of red hair, then pain, lots and lots of pain.

He woke up on the bus six hours later.

Naruto shook his thoughts off, now was not the time nor the place.

"I need a heading Kit," The blond said onto the almost invisible radio in his left ear, there were never any names on a Black Operations Mission **Code Names Only**. That was the first thing you learned as soon as you entered the program, his mission supports code name was Kitsune which Naruto habitually shortened to Kit. After years of working with the person on the other end of the line Naruto felt he'd earned a little bit of familiarity.

"On it, give me a second Ghost," The voice on the other end shot back. It wasn't exactly the most individual or particularly impressive Code Name but Naruto tried not to complain about it to much. It was something to be called while infiltrating enemy encampments and such, it didn't need to sound cool but Naruto couldn't help but curse the fact that no one even bother to try and think of a better one for him, it was actually kind of depressing really.

"Alright I've got control over the camera's already so you don't need to worry about that," The voice stated before Naruto heard the tapping of fingers on a keyboard. "Okay the corridor around the next corner is a straight run you've got two men in the room after that no guns, one has a large metal pipe and the other a knife, nothing you can't handle." He was assured, nice to know someone had faith in him.

"Okay once that done you've got one more corridor, there's a door to the storage room half way up that's were their keeping the girls and the kids, don't worry about them the Japanese Police will be around to pick them up when we finish up here. Other than that don't worry about the other three doors either, one of them leads to a small bunk room for people to sleep in and the others are store rooms, none of which have any people in them. That said at the end of the hall there's a room with six men, four have only knives but the last two have guns your choice on how you want to handle it but remember the client asked specifically that only knives be used, we don't get paid as much if you switch over." Kit finished, Naruto nodded to himself despite knowing his mission control couldn't see him.

"Understood, call me if there's any problems or anything changes, Ghost Out." The blond finished before calmly walking around the corner into the next section of hallway the knife still held in a tight grip in his right hand. The door before him looked to be metal coated like the rest but honestly even from where he was standing Naruto could tell the hinges hadn't been reinforced so a good kick would probably throw it wide open, of course that was option two. The blond reached out and tested the handle, it turned funnily enough. Well at least he wouldn't have to give up the element of surprise, so long as the two men weren't facing him.

Naruto almost let out a sigh of relief as the door opened soundlessly, if it had squeaked or something and blown his cover, not to mention the element of surprise, then he would have been pissed. The room was about what he was expecting around four by four meters relatively clear, minus the two guards that were looking straight at him.

Well fuck.

The taller of the two was blond, his hair was most likely dyed unlike Naruto's own. Standing just slightly shorter than Naruto himself and holding a long metal pole. The other was far shorter, probably just topping one sixty with short black hair and a rather long knife strapped to his belt. Honestly considering that the warehouse he was underneath at that point in time was the front for a human trade centre Naruto didn't find the fact that anyone was constantly carrying some kind of weapon to be surprising. After all the blond was certain that threatening the girls and the kids inside the room in the next hall probably worked very well when they had a weapon in hand to back those threats up. Still it was just a bitch that the men were not only standing but facing him as well, that was just bad timing and there wasn't anything anybody could do about that.

Blue eyes cased the room immediately for anything else the two could use as weapons. There wasn't really anything, the room was very bare simply having a few chair along with a desk and filing cabinet in one corner. Well at least that was something to be thankful for, the dark haired one's mouth began to open, Naruto didn't bother wasting any time. The blond shot forward his right arm blurring as he threw the combat knife forward with all the force his body could muster, aimed directly at the dark haired short one. After all he was clearly the more dangerous of the two since he had opened his mouth first, that meant he had began to think and that made him dangerous the other was still at least partially stunned upon seeing him.

The dark blade whipped through the air making a clear whistling sound as it did so, the knife buried itself in the dark haired one's throat with a wet thunk. Crimson liquid flew from the wound as blood began to cover the front of the dark haired one's clothing, well he'd have to wipe that knife off now. Naruto closed with the remaining enemy, his right arm ripping his second combat knife out of the holster on his left shoulder, fingers deftly flicking the blade around to be held back handed. The thug roared in anger and swung the pole towards him, to Naruto it may as well have happened in slow motion. The blond bent his knees, left arm shooting up to bounce the metal pole just a little high as he snaked in under the arm. The blade in his right hand cut up in a smooth arc, the simple motion severing the tendons in the man's right arm as Naruto found himself returning to his full hight next to his attack as his legs straightened. The blond didn't waste any of his momentum from the move, the blade in his right hand quickly reversing it's motion to be rammed through the side of his only still standing opponents throat.

Blood bubbled from the, clearly lethal, would leaking down the thugs neck. Naruto side stepped cleanly to avoid being hit by the falling corpse, or it's blood, as the now completely inert sack of meat that had once been a person fell to the ground, dead. Leaning down the blond cleaned off the knife before retuning it to the holster on his shoulder in a single flowing movement that showed just how often Uzumaki Naruto used those weapons. Leaning down once more Naruto retrieved his over knife from the throat of his first kill, wiping off the blade and handle on the back of the man's clothing before the blade settled comfortably back in his right hand and the blond calmly opened the door to the next hallway.

Just like Kitsune had told him, it was a straight shot to the final door, he could hear muffled sounds coming from one halfway up. It sounded like crying, it didn't really matter if it was one of the girls to be sold or used or one of the kids either way they weren't his problem right then. That didn't mean Naruto didn't feel bad for them though, the blond honestly would have liked nothing more than to open that door and let them all out. But he couldn't do that, doing that would have attracted the attention of the people behind the door at the end of the hallway. And while Naruto liked to think he was good, the fact of the matter was that he was not well equipped enough to protect however many people were in that room while they were being fired on in a rather narrow hallway, that was just a recipe for disaster.

No it was better to leave them where they were for now and focus on the job at hand, once he'd taken care of that the Japanese Police would be called in and they could handle the girls and the kids, everybody won. They just had to wait, just a little bit longer, this would all be over soon, they might not be able to hear him but Naruto, inside the privacy of his own mind, promised them that.

"Kit, tell me what's on the other side of that door, I need to know where everyone is, how big the room is and where the guys with guns are." Naruto stated quickly his voice cold and hard, time to go back to work. The radio was silent for second before a rush of static heralded the beginning of a sigh, that probably wasn't a good thing.

"It's not good news," Kitsune replied, confirming what Naruto had already assumed. "The rooms fairly large, probably around seven meters by five. There's a pair of desks on either side, two couches in the middle and a few more chairs scattered around, from what I can see they're having a meeting at the moment and the two guy's with gun are facing that door so once you're in you're going to need to move fast. The men with knives are sitting on those couches I mentioned with another one standing to the right of the door leaning against the wall and another behind one of the desks doing some kind of paperwork." His mission control finished, Naruto let out a breath from between his teeth, yeah that wasn't a great situation no matter how you looked at it. Oh he could do it alright, but Naruto couldn't help but hope that he didn't get shot doing so, that always sucked.

"Thanks Kit, I'll be done shortly, Ghost out." Naruto responded ending their conversation, the blond haired Butai closed his eyes briefly before opening them once more. His usually ocean blue eyes turned into hard chips of ice and Naruto's grip on the combat knife got tighter before he relaxed it slightly, alright time to get to work. The blond strode forward and calmly opened the door, seeing the room in person for the first time and not by a mental image constructed through Kitsune's words. Just as Kitsune had described everyone was just where she had said they were, which was a relief considering he would probably get shot at least one if they weren't.

Knowing where everyone was also gave Naruto an unbelievable tactical advantage, namely he could move first and worry about where everyone was later. The blond spun on the balls of his feet grip the wrist of the thug near the door and pulling towards himself, knife lashing out at the same time and giving the man a second mouth, this one smiling red, across his throat. Naruto didn't waste any time, dragging the corpse in front of him to serve as a meat sheild for half a second before pushing the body as hard as he could sending it into one of the thugs that was just getting up from the couch and drawing a knife as the two men at the end of the table stood drawing their guns.

Naruto recognised the weapons, a pair of Soviet Era Tokarev TT-33 Semi-Automatic Handguns. Not exactly surprising considering there were literally thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of the things just lying about after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the year nineteen ninety one. Thus it wasn't exactly surprising to see street thugs using those old weapons, or knock off's there of, it's was hard to tell sometimes. Still that meant that the guns had seven bullets in the clip and one in the chamber. So between the two he had a grand total of sixteen bullets to worry about before both of them needed to reload.

Naruto didn't bother waiting for the two men to start firing instead choosing to race to the side of the room and run full tilt towards the man behind the desk. The Yakuza, who was in the middle of standing up, seemed surprised about the move if the look on his face was anything to go by. The blond threw himself into a slide, avoiding the hail of bullets that went through were his head and torso just were the slide taking him behind the desk and to the feet of the now standing, and still thoroughly confused, Yakuza. The blond didn't wait for the man to get his bearings back, left foot hooked around the man's back leg before his right slammed into the Yakuza's hip with bone breaking force sending the man to the ground in a heap. Naruto didn't stop moving for a second, easily pulling himself forward and burying his knife in the man's throat.

The blond haired Butei's left hand wrapped around the front of the Yakuza's shirt before throwing the man's body up and over the desk towards his former comrades. Naruto himself kicked off the ground dashing around the desk as the Yakuza focused on the body of their now deceased comrade.

Two down, Four to go.

Naruto slipped next to one of the knife users, the blond's left arm whipped out slamming the man forward with a hard palm strike and forcing both the knife user and one of the gunmen to the ground. His right arm came back, aim steady, before whipping forward in a single smooth motion sending the knife in his right hand forward with all the speed of a bullet. The dark steel of the blade spun end of the end cutting through the air with an audible whoosh before the blade embedded itself inside the other gunman's eye socket, killing him almost instantly as the blade reached the brain.

Naruto stepped forward, towards the last still standing knife user, the other, along with the last remaining gunman were just beginning to untangle themselves. Seeing Naruto seemingly defenceless the man went on the attack, blade being swung wildly, the blond's eyes were coloured by disgust. How sloppy, how worthless, such horrible work with a blade was an insult to the weapon he was holding. The Yakuza stepped forward knife heading for Naruto's skull the blond stepped forward in return bringing his arms up as he did so and getting inside the range of the blade, Naruto's right elbow came forward hard slamming into the Yakuza's bicep with the force of an oncoming freight train. The blond didn't waste any time, his left forearm impacting with the Yakuza's wrist with equal force before his hand clamped down securing the Yakuza's wrist in an iron grip. Naruto didn't stop moving, the second he had the man's wrist the blond dragged him into a hard elbow to the side of the head before following up with a swift knife hand strike to the throat. His left arm twisted, forcing the man's elbow to face towards the floor before snapping his own right arm up in a powerful upwards arm-bar. It didn't break the bone but the force did hyper-extend the ligaments and tendons in the Yakuza's right arm, he wouldn't be using it again for awhile. Naruto's right hand darted in under the man's, now useless, right arm and grabbed the back of the knife before cleanly pealing the blade out of the Yakuza's hand.

Deft fingers spun the knife by it's blade, it completed a full one hundred and eighty degree rotation in less than a second Naruto easily catching the weapon by it's hilt and quickly whipping it up, giving the third Yakuza in that room a red grin across his throat.

The entire engagement had taken less than six seconds.

Naruto dashed forward towards the just standing knife user and the last gunman, the man with the knife cut across horizontally. The attack was aimed with intent to kill, to slice his jugular with a single blow and end his life, that was just fine by Naruto, after all he was trying to do exactly the same thing. The blond kept the body of the knife user in between him and the gunman, preventing him from taking a shot without going through his own man. He ducked low, left hand pushing his opponents arm higher as he moved underneath the horizontal strike, Naruto's own knife flashed out the blade digging in through the armpit of the knife users right arm, piercing his lungs. The man was a corpse, he just didn't know it yet. The blond flowed around the soon to be dead man like water bringing him face to face with the gunman, he was of middling hight, dark hair and brown eyes that were coloured with fear. Then again if Naruto was in his position, watching one man decimate five other men using nothing but a knife, chances are he would be a little bit wary himself.

The blonds left hand flashed out smacking the gunman's pistol away from his body as the trigger for the Tokarev TT-33 was pulled. The 7.62×25mm Tokarev bullet raced past Naruto's face and implanted itself firmly into the back of the still falling corpse behind him. His hand clamped down on the last Yakuza's wrist firmly pointing the gun away from him while his right hand raced forward burying the stolen knife into the Yakuza's throat, Naruto stepped aside and let the corpse fall the body hitting the ground with a dull thud.

That was the sound of the Finale.

Naruto walked over at a sedate pace and retrieved his other knife from it's current sheath, the first gunman's throat.

"Kitsune all done on my end, knives only, I'm leaving now call the police." Naruto said his left hand coming up and pressing on his radio.

"Understood," The word came back from a clearly relieved voice on the other end of the line. "Good work tonight Ghost, we don't need you for anything else yet so unless something comes up you've got the rest of the week off." Kitsune told him causing Naruto to nod his head in acceptance.

"Understood, Ghost out." He replied before walking out of the room, the only record of his passing the cooling corpses in his wake.

**XXX**

DING, DONG, DING, DONG, DING, DONG. The sound was simply agonising to hear and it had been going on for the last ten minutes. Naruto grumbled before turning over and throwing his pillow over his head, nope he was not answering that it was someone else's problem anyhow.

"Kinji open the Goddamn door!" The blond yelled, calling out to his flatmate he wanted this torture to end already, by the time he'd gotten home it had been almost two am. Naruto had been in bed for less than five hours now and he wanted to savour every single moment he could stay in bed for as long as possible, something which he couldn't do with Kinji's Girlfriend Ding Donging him into the realm of the living with her incessant pushing of that god forsaken door bell!

"Murgle," The sound of a mix between a groan and a denial sounded from the room next to him, Naruto sighed before pulling himself out of bed making his blue boxers visible to the world. Screw this if he had to suffer so did Kinji, Naruto reached down and pulled on a pair of heavy duty black pants before securing a bright orange belt to hold them up. A white button up shirt came next before Naruto pulled on a red tie, stupid dress code. The blond threw on a shoulder holster before storing the M45A1 inside securely and strapping a combat knife to his right thigh. The red jacket came next, form fitting but still retaining ease of movement. Another two knives were hidden away inside of the jacket before Naruto placed in two more clips of .45 ammo, just in case. Combat boots were slipped on and laced up with practised precision, Naruto yawned as he headed to the fridge and pulled the white machine open, snagging an Up and Go liquid breakfast from inside.

Kinji's unofficial Girlfriend Hotogi Shirayuki would be on the other side of that door, honestly Naruto didn't know why the girl just didn't confess to Kinji already. It was blatantly obvious to anyone who looked that the Shirayuki was absolutely smitten with him, hell it had been obvious to Naruto from day one when Kinji had first walked into his room as a first year, just as he was starting his second, and Shirayuki had turned up less than an hour later to 'check up on Kin-Chan', Naruto still found that nickname hilarious even after a year. She was a nice girl, Shirayuki just needed to have more confidence in herself especially when it came to Kinji. Still Kinji could also learn to take a Goddamn hint.

Naruto pulled the front door open just as the girl on the other side pushed the doorbell once more. Hotogi Shirayuki was a good looking woman that much could not be argued, long black hair that reached down just past her waist, silky white skin, aqua blue eyes and, well there was really no subtle way to convey this, enormous tits.

Especially for her age.

"Good morning Naruto-San." The shy girl said with a quick nod of her head, the white ribbon in her hair flowing with the motion.

"Morning Yuki," The blond replied defaulting to his nickname for the girl before stepping aside to allow her entry.

"Thank you," Shirayuki said walking inside before taking her shoes off and taking in his attire seemingly for the first time. "Are you going somewhere?" She asked tilting her head to the side in a somewhat confused manner, Naruto swore she was just like a puppy, a bipedal, black haired, downright adorable puppy.

"Yep!" Naruto responded with a grin rubbing the back of his head as he did so. "I've got some things that need doing so I'm going to head out now." The blond added, it wasn't a complete lie. He did have things that needed doing but the fact of the matter was that Naruto just didn't feel like watching Kinji completely miss the cues that were practically waved in his face that Shirayuki liked him, it was actually kind of painful to watch sometimes and it was just to early to deal with that shit right now.

"Too bad, I made some of that chicken you like so much to." Shirayuki replied her eyes turned down cast and Naruto swore that her ribbon actually wilted a little, huh that puppy remark was closer to the mark than he had guessed. Now he had to make her feel better somehow, after all she looked a little depressed now. Naruto reached out and ruffled her hair, it was something that the blond thought he would most likely do to a little sister if he had one.

"Hey now look at the bright side," Naruto said with a somewhat mischievous smile. "Kinji isn't up yet and I'm sure he'll be glad that you came to see him so early." The blond finished, revenge really was sweet, screw you Kinji for not answering the fucking door five minutes ago! Shirayuki's face lit up like Naruto had just handed her the best Christmas present ever.

"Oh you're right!" She said with a quick wave before bowing lightly. "Have a nice day," Shirayuki finished with a large smile before shutting the door leaving a bemused looking Naruto facing the wood. Oh he may not get to see it but by God revenge was sweet! The blond whistled a meaningless tune to himself while walking down the stairs towards the car park where Naruto's pride and joy, minus the handgun in his shoulder holster, was currently stored.

"I can't see where you comin' from. But I know just what you runnin' from: And what matters ain't the "who's baddest" but The ones who stop you fallin' from your ladder, baby. And you feel like you feelin' now and doin' things just to please your crowd. When I love you like the way I love you,  
And I suffer, but I ain't gonna cut you 'cause. This ain't no place for no hero. This ain't no place for no better man. This ain't no place for no hero. To call "home." The smooth vocals and excellent music of The Heavy came out of Naruto's jacket pocket allowing the blond to hear the song Short Change Hero for the first time that day.

"Hello," Naruto spoke into the phone holding it to his ear, a long suffering gruff sigh was his reply.

"I hate that song," Said the voice on the other end of the line. "I used to like it but with the amount of time it takes for you to answer your phone I've developed a hate for it." The voice added a clear sound of exasperation clear in their tone.

"Oh Nangou why are you calling me?" Naruto asked, personally the blond felt it was a fair question. After all Nangou and he didn't really interact that much anymore after his stint in Snipe to develop his long range capability more.

"That Nangou-Sensei to you brat," The gruff man at the other end of the line replied, Naruto just shrugged in return even knowing the man couldn't see him. It wasn't like he was going to stop after all, getting the man riled up was simply to funny to stop.

"And the reason for your call?" Naruto prompted wanting to get to the reason they were speaking.

"I'm calling in my favour," The gruff man on the other end of the line stated, Naruto stopped moving.

"Consider your next words very, very carefully Nangou because you only have one." The blond replied slowly slipping into his Black Ops persona.

"I need you to come down to Snipe, soon would be good but now would be better." Nangou replied instantly, "I have someone I need your help training."

"Why me?" Naruto asked instantly walking into the car park.

"Because you're the best close quarters combatant there is here, B Rank Assault or not no one can touch you in hand to hand unless they're either exceptional or you want to be." Nangou replied, that was true hell even the times he had fought against people that were supposedly 'exceptional' for the most part he had been faking it. After all you didn't want to draw to much attention to yourself, A and S ranks drew a lot of attention something no Black Operations Operative ever wanted to happen. Thus no matter your real skill any Black Operations Operative was always kept at B rank or below through careful manipulation of data by the Black Operations Division itself. Of course whether or not the Teachers actually knew what was going on was up in the air but Naruto chose not to think about that when he could avoid it.

"You sure you want to use your favour on this?" Naruto asked one last time, Nangou more than likely wouldn't get another. Hell the only reason the man even had one in the first place was because he pulled some strings in exchange for one to allow Naruto to train with the Snipe students to improve his accuracy, something like that probably wouldn't happen ever again.

"I'm sure," Nangou replied. "The girl I want you to train is exceptional, best Sniper I've ever seen. She rated an S Rank on her entrance exam and she's not half bad with a bayonet on the end of her rifle either but she has no skill up close and personal except for that. So I want you to change that, do that and we're square." The gruff man finished, Naruto nodded despite knowing he couldn't be seen.

"Alright then, I'm on my way now." The blond replied walking over to his pride and joy, an orange and black Suzuki GSR-X600. It wasn't the fastest bike in the world but it sure as hell beat taking the bus or walking for that matter.

"Thanks, see you soon Uzumaki." Nangou said, relief in his tone before hanging up.

Naruto placed his own phone back into his pocket before mounting the bike and placing the key into the ignition, with a quick twist the machine roared to life thrumming between his legs like a living animal. Placing on a helmet before easing on the throttle Naruto pulled out of the car park and onto the road. There was no traffic right then so Naruto opened up the throttle and the bike between his legs shot forward, the wind was a little cold and kind of cutting but all things considered Naruto was still enjoying himself immensely.

"I can't see where you comin' fro-" Naruto's right hand came off of the throttle and hit the small button on the side of his burnt orange helmet connecting the call.

"Hello?" The blond said into the mic inside of his helmet.

"It's me," Kitsune's voice sounded from the other end of the line, the girl was clearly still sleepy he could hear it, still he knew why she called.

"So how'd it go?" Naruto asked, the girl was calling to give him the debriefing for last nights mission.

"The Police went in and got the girls and kids out, you'll probably read it on the net later. Other than that the Police are saying that infighting between the Gang is what tipped them off to the hideout and the corpses are a result of infighting, you left no trace the Chief was very impressed." The girl finished, Naruto could almost feel the smug smile in her voice. "Other than that I double checked, we're not needed for the rest of the week so kick back and relax, I'll see you in class later."

"Thanks," Naruto replied turning another corner at breakneck speed heading towards the Snipe building. "Well I'll see you soon Kyuubi," The blond finished slowing the bike outside of the rather nondescript building that served as Snipe's Headquarters.

"Bye Naruto!" The girl replied before a dial tone let Naruto knew his friend, and mission control, had hung up. The blond turned the key and killed the engine, getting off Naruto placed his burnt orange helmet in the middle of the handle bars and headed inside, waiting for him on the ground floor was Nangou. He was a big man, Naruto would give him that, not as tall as the blond but definitely broader, probably forty to forty five. Buzz cut green hair, tanned skin and well muscled arms, a pair wrap around anti-flash shades wrapped around his head. Rumour had it that Nangou had been a Marine Corps Scout Sniper with the United States Armed Forces, the fact that he routinely referred to the Snipers he was training as P.I.G's and the Graduate Snipe Butei as H.O.G's only reinforced this with the students. That was true because P.I.G, Professionally Instructed Gunman, and H.O.G, Hunters Of Gunman, were acronyms used by the Marine Corps Scout Snipers to refer to new recruits and graduates.

"Naruto," The man greeted with a nod.

"Nangou," The blond replied with a nod of his own causing the older man to scowl slightly.

"That's Nangou-Sensei you disrespectful brat." The green haired man groused while leading his younger companion through the maze that was the Snipe Headquarters, no maps existed to guide students either. That was defencive measure so that in the event of the Snipe Headquarters being attacked the enemy wouldn't have an easy time figuring out where they were, only the Snipe Students would really know how to easily make their way around the building.

"So who's the student?" Naruto asked making the older man turn to face him while they walked.

"Name's Reki, Second Year and already the best I have." Nangou replied seemingly thinking deeply. "She's used to be just like you though Uzumaki," He stated simply making Naruto raise an eyebrow in return. "Former Black Operations a Sweeper, off the record missions, an Assassin when things went bad or someone needed to be taken out." Nangou stated simply, well that answered Naruto's question about whether or not the Teachers knew about the Black Ops Division.

"I see and they sent her in with no hand to hand training?" The blond asked clearly somewhat disbelieving at what he had just been told.

"Her killzone is two thousand and fifty meters, give or take a meter." Nangou replied bluntly, Naruto stopped moving.

"I'm sorry could you please repeat that please. I could have sworn you just told me that you have a Sniper that has a killzone of over two kilometres." Naruto said his voice incredulous, that was ridiculous.

"I did," Nangou replied simply, he had just the same reaction when Reki had demonstrated her ability.

"With what a Barrett M82?" The blond asked, hell even with that high powered rifle that kind of killzone was still ridiculous.

"No a Dragunov," The Snipe Master replied, Naruto stopped dead holy shit, holy fucking shit, the world record was only two thousand four hundred and seventy five meters and that was made with a Accuracy International AWM a gun made in 1996 and still in production today. The fact someone could make a shot even remotely close to that with a Dragunov was incredible. Forget best Sniper on Campus this girl was probably one of the best Snipers currently alive and former Black Ops to boot, well...shit.

"So why'd she leave Black Ops?" Naruto asked sounding somewhat broken making Nangou smile slightly. It wasn't every day that someone who earned the call sign Ghost, the name given to the Black Operations Operative that was the best at stealth in every Butei school, actually stunned. Not that Naruto knew that, that was a piece of information that was kept secret until the operative with the name graduated, no need to make Naruto's head bigger than it already was after all.

The kid was far from humble after all. He had an ego the size of Mount Fuji, if it wasn't for the fact the blond could back most of the shit that came out of his mouth up chances were he would have been dead years ago.

"Don't know," Nangou replied leading Naruto towards where he knew the training mats for hand to hand were in the Snipe Headquarters. "She was offered a place here as well but declined, we didn't ask for a reason and she hasn't offered one." The man finished before opening the door to the training room, it was large fifteen by fifteen meters easily. With the exception of a little bit of it the room was covered by one meter by one meter crash mats meant to make impact on the floor less painful.

The girl in the centre of the room was interesting, her hair was short, not reaching past her neck while it's colouration was blue-green. Not quite aquamarine but it was close, amber eyes seemed to be looking on with apathy but Naruto thought he could see small signs of interest in them. In her hands was a fake Dragunov with a rubber bayonet on the end, it seemed he was going to be tested first. Well that wasn't surprising he did have to know how good she was before he could train her properly and the fastest way to find that out was to fight her.

"Reki!" Nangou called out the slim girl snapped to attention when her name was called, "At ease." The Snipe Master called out and the girl relaxed, "Reki this is your new hand to hand combat instructor, Uzumaki Naruto, you will be working with him until he feels you are good enough." Nangou told the slim girl making her nod.

"Understood Sir," Reki responded, the girls voice was certain and Naruto was finding it difficult to get a read on her but he got the feeling that Reki was somewhat uncertain about him.

Naruto took off of his boots before placing his jacket next to them and unbuckling his gun and knives before walking onto the mats. It was a bad idea to wear any kind of shoe, except for mat shoes specially made for the crash mats beneath them, on the mat since it could damage them, which naturally made the damaged mat less effective at preventing injury.

"Alright before I leave I'm going to have you fight Uzumaki here, you can use that bayonet but you are to attempt to win this engagement." Nangou told the girl as Naruto moved into position before Reki, there was two meters between them.

"Understood Sir," The slim girl replied to the Snipe Master before turning to face Naruto and giving him a small nod which the blond returned.

"Begin!" Nangou yelled moving away from the two combatants. Reki didn't waste any time charging in with the bayonet leading in a classic straight thrust, it was well executed Naruto noted shifting his body slightly to avoid the blow. Reki's follow up attack was equally impressive, the girl shifted her weight and send a sweeping blow at his stomach, in a real fight that would be a slash to disembowel, ruthless. Naruto leaned slightly allowing the blow to pass him by a hair, the girl was an excellent user of the bayonet that much was readily apparent, but there wasn't a single person on Campus that could match Naruto when it came to close range combat.

The blond stepped in as soon as the blow moved past him, left hand clamping down on the forward grip of the Dragunov while his right clamped down by the trigger guard. Amber eyes widened slightly, well what did you know she could be surprised, Naruto actually felt bad for the girl in front of him for one very simple reason.

What happened next was going to hurt her a lot more than it was going to hurt him.

A hard twist and a forward step removed the Dragunov from the girls grip in a single fluid motion before Naruto slammed the butt of the fake gun into Reki's diaphragm. The slim girl folded in half almost instantly eyes going wide, her mouth opened but no scream came out instead bile forced its way past Reki's teeth, the blow strong enough to force the girl to vomit. Naruto threw the gun away in a quick and efficient movement, his right hand gripping Reki's left wrist firmly as the blond stepped behind the girls lead leg. His left arm whipped up the ridge of his hand slamming into her throat as his leg kicked back forcing Reki to the ground with immense force, the strange expressionless girl hit the mat head first hard enough to knock her unconscious instantly.

"Verdict?" Nangou asked from the side lines making Naruto look up from his defeated opponent.

"As far as using a bayonet go's not much I can teach her," The blond admitted before turning back to the downed girl.

"And hand to hand?" The Snipe Master asked his voice honestly concerned, Naruto whistled in a manner that indicated disbelief.

"I've got a lot of work to do."

**XXX**

"Evening Kinji," Naruto said giving his flatmate a wave as he killed yet another enemy on the T.V in front of him, ah Battlefield Bad Company would your charm ever fade?

"Naruto," The dark haired Butei replied seemingly lost in thought as he sat on the couch and just stared out the window, Naruto didn't ask, Kinji would talk to him if he wanted to.

"Boom Headshot," The blond remarked to no one as the head of a computer controlled enemy exploded in a shower of blood.

Ding Dong, the doorbell sounded, Naruto made a mental note to take the batteries out of the damn thing so that it couldn't wake him up anymore.

"You going to answer that Kinji?" The blond asked his lost in thought flatmate who started at being addressed.

"Why, it could be for you." The dark haired second year told him making Naruto stare at him disbelief.

"No because that would mean it was a social call, I never get social calls." The blond responded, making Kinji nod slowly. Naruto had a point that he had to acknowledge, after all in one year of living together no one had ever come to the room to see Naruto. Anyone who ever wanted to get in contact with the blond just called his cellphone and had him meet them elsewhere, so if past instances were to be believed then the door was definitely for Kinji.

"Fine," Kinji replied after a second standing up to answer the door. Naruto went back to playing the game before him as he heard the door open.

"You took your time!" The voice that said it was high pitched, most likely a girl, most likely in middle school or lower judging by the octave.

"K-Kanzaki!?" That was Kinji, hmm, surprised and somewhat worried, ah fuck.

That was never a good combination.

That combination on a mission usually ended with him getting shot.

"You can call me Aria." The girls voice said again before he heard steps coming into the living room with Kinji following behind. Blue eyes turned to look at the new person in his home, she was short, definitely no higher than one hundred and forty five centimetres, ankle length pink hair and magenta eyes, well that was the first time he'd ever seen eyes that colour before.

"Who are you!?" The girl demanded pointing at him with one finger, Naruto's left eye twitched slightly.

"Uzumaki Naruto brat," He snapped back ignoring the growling sound in the back of the pink haired girls throat at the brat comment. "Now who are you and why are you in my home!?" Naruto demanded, Jesus Christ she'd been here for less than five minutes and he was already wanting to throw her off of the balcony. Actually now there was netting out there to prevent people from falling to their deaths wasn't there, huh, that meant he could actually throw her off of his seventh story balcony and not have to worry about being done for killing her. All of a sudden that course of action became very, very desirable. Still he should probably put that on the back burner for later after all Naruto hadn't missed the pair of Colt M1911 pistols in thigh holders under her skirt which had lifted slightly when she turned around. Granted Naruto was ninety five percent sure he could pull it off but chances were she would try to shoot him for it later so the idea was, regretfully, relegated to be used at a later date.

"Kanzaki H. Aria!" The girl responded, hair seemingly raising a little like it was hackles. Geez first it was Shirayuki who was more like a puppy and now a cat, oh he did not want to be in the building when these two met but chances were he would need to be, after all someone had to stop the room being turned into a bullet riddled mess. Still Kanzaki H. Aria, no it couldn't be a coincidence at all could it? Still they may have only met once but the girl he knew as Kanzaki H. Aria had blond hair and blue eyes and this girl had red hair and magenta eyes, peoples hair colour and eyes could change over time but that was drastic.

"Great now that we know each other, get out of my house Kanzaki H. Aria." Naruto stated bluntly, seriously the kid just barged in and demanded to know who he was, rude brat. Granted he wasn't that great with manners himself but still there were some things you just didn't do. Hell it had taken him more than a little while to warm up to Shirayuki and that kid was both polite and cute...kind of like a well trained puppy.

"WHAT!" The short red head seemed to explode with rage at his words, Naruto leaned back slightly making drawing the M45A1 in his shoulder holster easier. "This is Kinji's house you can't tell me to get out!" She added, hackles still up, Naruto just looked unamused.

"Actually it's my house, Kinji only got here last year I was living here since the year before that." The blond pointed out simply bringing Aria up short while Kinji nodded in the background, it was true after all. The red head shook her head quickly face remaining locked in an expression of anger.

"Argh what does it matter you're still rude!" Aria snapped barring her teeth.

'Look who's talking,' Kinji thought to himself, wisely not voicing the opinion.

"Yeah well I'm not the one who barged into someone else's home and acted like they owned the place brat!" Naruto replied anger easily visible on the blonds face as he did so. "What the hell are you here for anyway!?" He demanded, Naruto felt he deserved to know at least that much, the short girl drew herself up to her full hight, which was still comparatively small when compared against the blond even when he was sitting down.

"I want Kinji to become my slave!" Aria said looking, as much as a person who was short, angry and with fizzy hair is capable of looking, like a queen making a declaration from her throne. Naruto couldn't help himself, the blond have the short girl before him a single look over before turning back to Kinji.

"I didn't know you were into that Kinji, a Lolicon huh?" Naruto couldn't help but snipe at his underclassman, it was just to perfect of an opportunity to lose.

"WHAT!?" This time the burst of sound came from Kinji, not that Naruto was surprised. "Come on Naruto, don't even joke about that. I wouldn't want anything to do with this impossible, tiring and troublesome girl." The blond smothered his laughter at the look of annoyance on the red haired cat-girl's face. Heh, now this was funny, beat the hell out of HBO any day of the week, well at least until Game Of Thrones came back on at any rate. Aria seemed to compose herself for a second before looking at Kinji with all the intensity of a woman locked in mortal combat.

"There are three words I hate, Impossible, Tired, Troublesome. These words stop people from reaching their potential you mustn't say them in front of me again okay?" She may have finished it like a question but Naruto could quite easily tell the girl meant it as a statement, oh boy it was going to be a long night. "Anyway, Kinji become my partner, transfer out of Inqesta and back into Assault so we can do Butei work together." Aria finished, Naruto just sighed this wasn't going to end well he could just tell.

"No," Kinji replied flatly, it only lasted a split second but Naruto savoured the look of stunned disappointment on the midgets face before it vanished, Vindictive and Petty, maybe but God did it feel good. "Besides I transferred out of Assault because I didn't want to be there, I don't want to go back, I plan on quitting Butei anyway so there's no point." Kinji finished, Naruto would be sad to see Kinji, and most likely Shirayuki, go. The kid had been a good flatmate while it lasted and Shirayuki had grown on him after all this time, stupid cute puppy-girl-thing, made him feel like he'd just kicked a puppy every time he did something that made her sad.

It was really quite frustrating.

"That doesn't matter Kinji will be in a party with me no matter what!" Aria declared before pointing to the case she'd brought in with her. "If you don't agree I'll just live here until you do!" She added with a superior look.

"No you fucking won't," Naruto interjected for the first time in the last few minutes. "My house remember? Not to mention this is the boy's dorm not the girls so you wouldn't have a leg to stand on even if you took this to a teacher." The blond finished subtlety flicking the safety off of his gun, if things got violent he would be ready to shoot first.

Ding Dong. The doorbell sounded distracting all three from the argument they were having.

"Kinji get that would you," Naruto said more calmly than he felt, because he currently kept feeling like throwing the little red head off of the balcony was becoming a better and better idea. As the dark haired Butei left the room Naruto took a hard look at the child before him. Mind casting back through the years and the reports he'd read about the S Ranked Butei.

"Kanzaki H. Aria," He said as if testing out the name on his lips.

"Yes an-" Was as far as Aria got before Naruto cut her off.

"Kanzaki H. Aria, also known as Sherlock Holmes the Fourth." The blond stated coldly making Aria shrink back slightly, "Yes I'm well aware of who you are short stuff. Granted I wasn't before you told me your name but once you did that there wasn't anyone else you could have been with Kinji's luck." Naruto said, his voice slowly growing colder with each word. "You're trying to free your mother aren't you Kanzaki Kanae who is currently serving eight hundred and sixty four years in a maximum security cell for crimes committed in various counties." He finished looking down at the girl before him who's anger seemed to have returned five fold.

"Mama did not commit any crimes she was framed." Aria hissed out, Naruto just nodded in return.

"I know," The blond agreed with a nod. "This may surprise you girl but this is not our first meeting Kanzaki," Naruto said coldly making Aria start as he did s. "Once before, many years ago, when you couldn't be more than four years old, I was six, we met at one of those formal functions. My parents were invited so I came along as well. I met you and your mother that day so believe me when I say I believe that your mother couldn't have committed those crimes because even now I remember a very kind woman who wouldn't ever have been able to commit the kind of things your mother has been accused of." He finished before closing his eyes slowly and then opening them once more.

"I don't really care why you want Kinji but I do expect you to at least be civil while your here do you understand me?" Naruto asked, he should throw her out it would end a whole lot of problems before they started but really Aria was just a kid that wanted to help her mother he'd feel like an asshole if he threw her out.

Goddamn Hero Complex.

Naruto shot ram rod straight, something was happening near the doorway he sensed a great evil, a disturbance in The...well whatever it was that Assassin's felt in place of The Force. Aria didn't say anything else as Kinji entered the room looking relieved.

"Shirayuki?" Naruto asked looking a little concerned for his younger friend.

"Shirayuki," Kinji confirmed, Naruto stood up and walked towards his room stopping to turn off the Playstation on his way past.

"You two love birds can work the rest out yourselves, don't do anything I wouldn't do." Naruto said before pausing at the entrance to his room. "Oh and Kinji?" The blond called back rolling his shoulders.

"Yeah?" The dark haired Butei asked in return causing Naruto to turn around wearing a mischievous smile.

"Remember to wear protection!" The blond finished before closing the door behind him to get ready for bed, somehow Naruto got the feeling sleep would soon become a precious commodity he would be seeing less and less of.

**Chrome Hounds: Chapter One- End.**


End file.
